Dec. 9, 2026
They will be vagabonds no more.
After five decades on the move, the Community School of the Arts now branded as Arts Plus has found a permanent facility on The Plaza, even as many of its teachers’ lessons with children learning the arts will continue to be held in area churches and other spaces.
This morning, Arts Plus Executive Director Devlin McNeil and board member Eugene Young offered details of a $16 million project to reshape a neighborhood Presyberian church into an arts education hub serving the entire community.
Two key investments are brightening prospects for one nonprofit even as most nonprofits struggle.
One was a decision several years by the Presbytery to find a community use for the church and associated buildings on The Plaza that it would be closing. Arts Plus has a 50-year lease with possible lease extensions to an even 80 years and has agreed to pay for upfits and maintenance of the building.
The other was a decision by Arts Plus in June 2024 to invest in brick and mortar, and to launch a $16 million project of construction, renovation, and creation of maintenance endowment. McNeil reported $10 million already raised. Construction, she said, would begin when there is $13 million in hand.
Funny thing, though: McNeil said the space is already at capacity and in use seven days a week, sheltering Arts Plus programs and those of other arts organizations and individual artists who have asked about using some space. Both McNeil and Young said Arts Plus has a culture of saying yes, and then working out details to meet art educators’ needs at an affordable price. It makes you wonder about whether the near-empty uptown towers have ears to hear.
Below the video from this morning’s meeting are two more sources of information about Arts Plus.
- A video shown at the meeting.
- Slides from a presentation. The slides may be downloaded here as a PDF file.
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